


If You Don't Ask

by phizzwizards



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25505836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzwizards/pseuds/phizzwizards
Summary: Archie can’t think straight. There might be a reason for that.Divergent from 4x17.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Kevin Keller
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	If You Don't Ask

**Author's Note:**

> Look, all I know is Kevin kissed Archie and I forgot everything else that happened this season.

People were starting to notice. Archie had been trying his best, these past few weeks, to act like everything was normal, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it up. How much longer could he keep lying when his mom asked if he was okay, or when Veronica asked what he was thinking about? That was the worst. He was always thinking about the same thing these days and it definitely wasn’t something Ronnie would want to hear about.

He was going to have to do something about it. What that was, Archie didn’t know, as he paced his bedroom, trying to figure it out for what felt like the millionth time.

The final straw had come at lunch that day, when Jughead straight up asked him why he had been so weird lately. He hadn’t known what to tell him. He had almost told him the truth.

The thing was, if Jughead had realised something was up, then Betty, and Veronica, and Archie’s mom, and everyone else he saw and talked to every day probably had too.

Including…

Archie stopped, shook that idea out of the mixed up jumble already in his head, and resumed his pacing.

He was pretty sure none of them would have guessed the truth, but if it kept plaguing his every waking moment like it had been, he knew it was only a matter of time before he cracked and told someone. Probably his mom, who would understand and be way too nice about it. Maybe Jughead, who would quote some obscure poet at him. Ordinarily, he might have been able to tell Betty but with everything that had been going on recently, he couldn’t ask her to keep another secret.

Anyway, just telling someone wouldn’t help, not in any real way. This itch inside his skull was something he had to get out, and telling someone wouldn’t solve the problem, it would just make it more real, make the itching worse. He had to do something.

Archie stopped pacing. He stared straight out the window, where he could see Betty’s room, empty, and thought about nights when he had waved to her from that window. Nights when he had closed the curtains early so he wouldn’t have to see her and Jughead making out, or so she wouldn’t be able to see him and Veronica.

There was only one thing that would get these thoughts out of his head. He had known that all along really, that was the problem. That was the thing that had kept him up at night for weeks now, the biggest thought he had been trying to avoid, the decision that had been inching its way into his brain bit by bit, that he had been pushing back every time, not daring to look at it.

He grabbed his keys and ran downstairs.

‘I’m going to the community center,’ he called out before shutting the front door behind him, not pausing for a moment to even let his mom respond. He knew if she talked to him now, he would hesitate. He might change his mind, might tell her instead, and he couldn’t change his mind, not now. He had made his decision and he had to see it through. He could deal with the repercussions afterwards, he would have to, but if he didn’t do this now, there was no way he would get up the courage again, and he had to do it. He had to get rid of these thoughts that were making him crazy.

There was only one person he could talk to about this and it wasn’t his mom.

He drove closer to the speed limit than was strictly necessary. Now that he had decided to face the problem head on, he could barely concentrate on the road. All the thoughts he’d had over the past few weeks were buzzing around his head at once, louder than they had been on their own. He slammed the breaks on when he reached the house, briefly relieved to see only one car in the driveway.

Archie left the car door wide open, took the porch steps two at a time, banged on the front door louder than he should have. He didn’t know what he was going to say when the door opened. He hadn’t stopped to think about it. The thoughts in his head were too loud anyway. He was just going to have to open his mouth and hope something came out.

All the thoughts in Archie’s head froze when Kevin opened the door. It was like he was short-circuiting, his brain filled with static. Every conceivable word he could say in this moment was gone.

‘Archie? What-’ Archie did the only thing he could think of. He reached forward, grabbed Kevin’s face in both of his hands, and kissed him, before Kevin could even finish his sentence.

The kiss didn’t last long, just long enough for Archie to feel Kevin’s shock give way to something else, his lips relaxing against Archie’s own.

For the first time in weeks, Archie’s thoughts were silent. Then he pulled away.

Archie opened his eyes to see that Kevin’s were wide with shock, his mouth a confused O between Archie’s hands. All the thoughts rushed back in, even worse than before. Archie let go of Kevin’s face, feeling the heat rising in his own cheeks.

Oh, God. This had not fixed anything. This was worse. So much worse.

‘Sorry,’ Archie mumbled. He ran back to the car and drove away, leaving Kevin wondering what the hell had just happened.

-

‘Okay,’ Archie said to himself, as he paced the tiny office at the community center. ‘So you made things a million times worse. It’s not the first time. You can fix this.’

He tried to think of a way that he could fix it.

When nothing came to mind, he fell into his desk chair and let his forehead hit the desk.

‘Shit.’

Archie was so preoccupied with his own misery, he didn’t even hear the door to the community center open, so he didn’t realise he had company until Kevin spoke.

‘Do you want to tell me what that was about?’ Archie jumped in his seat, so surprised he didn’t even have time to tell his face not to look completely miserable before he met Kevin’s gaze. ‘What is going on?’ Kevin asked, looking seriously worried. Archie couldn’t blame him.

‘Nothing,’ Archie said. He was in full panic mode now, not even hearing the words he was saying. ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry. Forget it.’

‘Forget it?’ Kevin crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the closed office door. ‘Just forget that you came to my house, kissed me, and then ran away, without a word?’

Archie winced. He was already painfully aware of how stupid it all was but hearing it said out loud like that still somehow made it sound even worse.

‘Yes?’

Kevin shook his head. ‘Can we skip the part where you try to convince me that you had a momentary lapse of sanity and just tell me what’s really going on?’

Archie stared at the ground in front of Kevin’s feet. Why wasn’t he better at talking? Like Jughead?

Okay, maybe not like Jughead.

‘You can talk to me,’ Kevin said, his voice gentler than before, more quiet. Archie looked up at his open, concerned face, and, against his better judgement, he gave in easily. 

After all, wasn’t Kevin the only person he could talk to about this? Wasn’t that why he went to his house in the first place?

Archie stared at the floor again. Maybe this was the only thing he could do at this point, but that didn’t mean he wanted to look at Kevin’s face while he did it. 

‘It’s just… ever since you kissed me during that song… It’s all I can think about.’

Kevin let out a small breath of a laugh and Archie dared to look at him again. He didn’t seem too horrified, so that was something, at least.

‘Is that all?’ Kevin pushed himself away from the door and came a few steps further into the room.

‘Is that all?’ Archie repeated, slightly annoyed now. ‘I can’t think about anything else.’ He tried to explain it better, to make Kevin understand just how much these thoughts had taken over his every waking moment for the past few weeks. ‘I can’t concentrate on anything else. I don’t hear people when they’re talking to me. I can’t sleep. I just thought, maybe if I kissed you again, I’d be able to move on. Think about something else.’

Kevin nodded. His mouth was twisted in a way that made Archie suspect he might be trying to hold in another laugh.

‘Okay.’ Kevin came closer again, this time to perch on the edge of Archie’s desk. ‘Well, first of all, I’m flattered.’ Archie rolled his eyes. ‘And second of all, you could have just asked instead of showing up and ambushing me.’

Something in Archie’s head pinged. Like, an actual pinging noise, audible, he hoped, only to his ears.

‘Really?’

Kevin shrugged. ‘You think I’ve never thought about kissing you? Archie. I didn’t pick you completely at random during that song.’

‘You didn’t?’

Kevin shook his head again. He looked almost sorry for Archie now.

‘Huh.’ Archie felt a little confidence flutter up in his chest. More than he had had for the past few weeks, anyway.

‘So?’ Kevin asked, after a moment of silence in which Archie tried and failed once again to make his thoughts make sense. ‘Did it work?’

This time it was Archie’s turn to laugh, although it came out sounding a lot more desperate than he would have liked. ‘No,’ he said.

‘Do you want to try again?’

Archie searched Kevin’s face for any signs of teasing but all he found was sincerity.

‘Really?’ he asked again.

‘I’m game if you are,’ Kevin said, his look of slight concern giving way to a challenging smile. ‘It might work better if we both actually know what’s about to happen.’

Archie stood up from his chair and moved to stand in front of Kevin. That flutter of confidence in his chest turned into something else. He felt his heart start to beat faster, his hands starting to sweat, as Kevin straightened up between him and the desk, disappearing the few inches of space between them.

Archie breathed in, deep. One fortifying breath to steady his shaking hands, before closing the gap completely.

If that first kiss had twisted Archie all into knots, and the second had pulled his threads tighter, then this kiss was the release, loosening everything until he felt the itching in his head melt away completely.

Unthinking, truly, blissfully, unthinking for the first time in weeks, Archie’s hands came to rest on Kevin’s waist, bunching the fabric of his shirt under them, pulling him closer.

Kevin leaned into him, one of his hands making its way into the hair at the nape of Archie’s neck. Archie let out an involuntary moan and felt Kevin laugh against his lips in response.

When they pulled apart, both breathing heavily, Archie looked into Kevin’s eyes and found that for the first time in a long time, his thoughts weren’t all jumbled together, crashing against each other to get to the forefront of his mind. They were all pointing in the same direction. Right at the boy in front of him.

‘Better?’ Kevin asked. They were still standing so close together that his breath was hot on Archie’s lips. Archie couldn’t help but look down at Kevin’s lips again. Some of his thoughts hadn’t completely changed. Archie nodded. Kevin smiled, then he whacked Archie on the arm. ‘See? You should have just asked.’

Archie let that thought run through his mind, now that it could without becoming entangled in a thousand other errant thoughts.

Then he asked.


End file.
